Richard Gere so convincingly dons his roles while shooting that even passersby fail to notice him. Recently, a French tourist in New York offered a leftover pizza to Gere thinking that he was actually a beggar sifting through garbage.
Karine Valnais Gombeau, a 42-year-old Parisian, saw Gere with his knit cap pulled down over his ears and rummaging through trash cans near Grand Central station in Manhattan. She had just finished her meal at a nearby pizzeria with her husband and 15-year-old son. Gombeau thought that she would help the 'beggar' by giving him bag of leftover pizza.
According to the New York Post, the 64-year-old 'Pretty Woman' star asked her what was in the bag. "I tried to tell him in English, but it came out half in French," she said. "I said, 'Je suis désolée [I am sorry], but the pizza is cold.' "
"He said, 'Thank you so much. God bless you,' " Gombeau recalled. She left without knowing that Gere was shooting for his upcoming movie 'Time Out of Mind.' It was only when the Post carried a photo of her she realized that the 'beggar' she offered pizza to was none other than Hollywood star Gere.
"It was magical . . . It's crazy, this story. It's unimaginable that something like this could happen," she said. Gombeau added that Gere was "very handsome, even at his age."
The act of kindness seemed to have touched Gere. Director Oren Moverman told the Post that Gere thought her as an angel. "He was very touched . . . He said, 'Ya know, she was like an angel'. He was in character, so obviously he was feeling like a guy who lives on the street. When she came over, he said he felt like an angel gave him a gift," Moverman said.
